The Bishops of Lismore
The history of the Catholic Church in the mid-north and far north coast regions of New South Wales commences with the arrival of Bishop John Bede Polding in 1834 and the progressive creation of new dioceses up to that of Armidale in 1871.
In the next fifteen years the Catholic population and coastal communities had grown to the extent that another diocese was needed to provide for them. In 1887 the area was divided off from Armidale and became initially the new Diocese of Grafton until the title was changed to the Diocese of Lismore in 1900.
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The First Bishop, Jeremiah Joseph Doyle 1849–1909
Born in County Cork, Ireland, Fr Doyle studied at All Hallows Missionary College in Dublin and was ordained there in 1874 for service in the Diocese of Armidale. He arrived in Australia early in 1875 and served in Armidale until 1878 when he was appointed to the Richmond, Brunswick, and Tweed river districts. He adopted Lismore as his base and built a church and presbytery.
In May 1887, at age 38, Dean Doyle was appointed by Pope Leo XIII as the first bishop of the new Diocese of Grafton. He was consecrated at St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, on 28 August 1887. He soon relocated his See to Lismore due to its central position and larger Catholic population.
Bishop Doyle oversaw the growth of parish schools with the help of the Sisters of Mercy and the Presentation Sisters. Though a cathedral was planned by 1892, financial crises delayed its construction until 1904; it opened in 1907.
Doyle was a civic leader who helped develop Lismore’s public infrastructure. He died in 1909, two years after the cathedral opened, and was buried in its Lady Chapel. The bell tower and bells were completed in his memory in 1911.
The Second Bishop, John Joseph Carroll 1865–1949
Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, John Carroll was ordained in 1890 and came to Australia shortly after. He served at St Mary’s Cathedral and in several parishes before being appointed Bishop of Lismore by Pope St Pius X in 1910.
His 39-year tenure saw significant expansion of the Catholic population, parishes, clergy, and schools. Additions to the Cathedral included a pipe organ (1912) and marble altars (1919). He established the Cowper Orphanage and welcomed several religious congregations: Marist Brothers (1911), Sisters of Charity (1921), and Marist Fathers (1930).
Bishop Carroll died in 1949 and was buried in the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel beside Bishop Doyle.
The Third Bishop, Patrick Joseph Farrelly 1895–1974
Born in Lismore, Bishop Farrelly was baptised and ordained in St Carthage’s Cathedral. He became Coadjutor Bishop in 1931 to assist Bishop Carroll and was among the first Australian-born bishops.
He served from Grafton for 18 years and assumed administration of the Diocese in 1947 due to Bishop Carroll’s illness. In 1949, he succeeded as Bishop of Lismore.
Known for his energy and gifted speaking, Bishop Farrelly modernised transportation and grew the diocese’s infrastructure. By the 1950s, there were 45,000 Catholics in 28 parishes, with a peak number of priests and religious.
He resigned in 1971, died in 1974, and was buried in front of the Cathedral beneath a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The Fourth Bishop, John Steven Satterthwaite 1928-2016
Approaching retirement, Bishop Farrelly requested Pope St Paul VI to provide the diocese with a Coadjutor. The sending of a priest of the Diocese of Armidale in 1969 saw history repeating itself in the appointment of Bishop Doyle from Armidale in 1887.
Father John Satterthwaite was born in Sydney in 1928, shortly before his family moved to Inverell where his father was appointed shire engineer. Educated at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, John Satterthwaite proceeded to the University of Sydney and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Engineering. After two years in the workforce at Port Kembla, he responded to a call to the priesthood and received his further education at St Columba’s College, Springwood and in Rome at the Lateran University. There he was ordained priest on 16 March 1957. Returning to Armidale Father Satterthwaite served various pastoral appointments as well as secretary to Bishop Doody and Diocesan Chancellor.
Appointed Coadjutor of Lismore, Bishop Satterthwaite was consecrated in St Carthage’s Cathedral on 1 May 1969. On Bishop Farrelly’s retirement on 31 August 1971 he succeeded as the diocese’s fourth bishop.
The thirty years of Bishop Satterthwaite’s episcopate followed upon the social turmoil of the 1960’s as well as being a time of considerable change following the Second Vatican Council. He soon initiated a reassessment of the pastoral needs of the diocese, whose population in 30 parishes now exceeded 72,000 Catholics. He established a Diocesan Pastoral Council and the Council of Priests. The work of the Catholic Schools Office was reorganised under lay leadership and the Catholic mission and identity of the schools strengthened through close cooperation between parish priests, school principals and key lay staff. In 1977 he supervised a rearrangement and extension of the Cathedral sanctuary to better accommodate the celebration of Mass in accordance with the Church’s liturgical reforms. Bishop Satterthwaite greatly loved the Cathedral, spending early hours of prayer there each day before the Blessed Sacrament, and making it the centre of his pastoral ministry. During his time in office he ordained 45 new priests.
The first four Bishops of Lismore held office for an average of 28 years each. Bishop Satterthwaite sought a Bishop Coadjutor somewhat earlier so that he could retire, which he did on 1 December 2001. Over the next 15 years he quietly assisted in the pastoral work of St Agnes’ parish Port Macquarie, where he died on 23 April 2016. His Requiem Mass was celebrated in St Carthage’s Cathedral, after which he was laid to rest among the priests in the East Lismore Cemetery.
The Fifth Bishop, Geoffrey Hylton Jarrett 1937-
It was southwards to Tasmania that Pope St John Paul II looked to seek the next bishop for Lismore. Father Jarrett had been a priest of the Archdiocese of Hobart for 30 years when he was appointed Bishop Coadjutor
Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett was born in Kyneton, Victoria, on 1st December, 1937, on his father’s side of an English pioneer family in the district, and on his mother’s side of German Lutheran families from Prussia who had migrated to Melbourne in the 1840’s. The Bishop grew up in Papua New Guinea where his father was a mining engineer and later a copra and coffee producer.
He was educated at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne. Shortly after matriculating, then with university in view, the opportunity to travel opened wider horizons in London pursuing his interest in documentary film-making. He worked for several years in the Film Unit of BBC Television at Ealing Studios until he finally responded to a long-felt vocation to the Anglican ministry. Remaining in England he studied for five years at the Theological College of the Society of the Sacred Mission at Kelham, Nottinghamshire. On return to Australia he worked as an Anglican priest in Queensland until he was received into the Catholic Church in November 1965.
Archbishop Young accepted him for the priesthood of the Archdiocese of Hobart and his further studies were entrusted to the Marist Fathers at their seminary at Toongabbie, NSW. Bishop Jarrett was ordained priest by Archbishop Young in Sydney on 14 May, 1970.
After thirty years as a parish priest and Administrator of St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart, on 9 December he was appointed by Pope St John Paul II as Bishop Coadjutor of Lismore. His episcopal ordination took place in St Carthage’s Cathedral on 22nd February, 2001.
Upon the retirement of Bishop Satterthwaite on 1 December 2001, Bishop Jarrett became the fifth Bishop of Lismore.
The Catholic population of the diocese had now passed 100,000. Into the new millennium the greatly changed attitude to religion and belief of the past 40 years was everywhere more evident, marriage and family life was less secure, and the old Irish solidarity underpinning the Catholic community had almost vanished. This was reflected in a much diminished religious practice, most notably in the number of Catholics regularly at Sunday Mass and the sacraments.
The popularity of Catholic schools however continued to rise, with increasing non-Catholic enrolments, requiring enhancement of their value as places of Christian influence and evangelisation. The formation of teachers and principals, new and continuing, was a special focus, one aspect of which was the series of ‘Pilgrimages into the Apostolic Foundations of the Church’ in Greece, Turkey and Rome, led by the bishop and priest chaplains. The bishop’s responsibility to ensure future priests for the diocese saw the seeking of vocations from international sources to train for ordination in Australia, and led to an increased number of ordinations of both Australians and seminarians from overseas. The liturgy as the source and summit of Christian life, and the Church’s tradition of ‘worship in the beauty of holiness’ to sustain and strengthen the spiritual life was an ideal upheld and given expression especially by way of diocesan example in the exterior repair and interior restoration of St Carthage’s Cathedral between 2010-2015.
Bishop Jarrett was finally retired with the appointment of his successor, Father Gregory Homeming OCD, by Pope Francis in December 2016, and the new bishop’s assumption of office in the following February.